Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch by Richard Hine Page B

“The third quarter’s done. All of my projects are already committed.”
    “We’ll be looking everywhere,” says Henry. “For example, as of today, there’s an immediate freeze on nonessential travel.” He glances at Jeanie, from whom the idea obviously originated.
    “We’ve had that in place for six months,” says Susan.
    “OK,” says Henry. “We’ll freeze all travel.”
    “Even essential travel?” asks Ben. “I’m supposed to be in DC next week for the dinner Hank’s hosting for ExxonMobil. Stan Lyford’s speaking,” he adds, dropping the name of our deputy managing editor.
    “OK,” says Henry. “Communicate to your staffs that the freeze on nonessential travel now includes all travel, with the exception of essential travel.”
    “So should I go to DC?” says Ben.
    “If it’s essential,” says Henry.
    “What about Erika?” says Ben. “She was supposed to be coming with me.”
    “Let’s not get too granular,” says Henry. “The purpose of today’s meeting is to discuss broad strokes.”
    “Precisely,” says Jeanie, immediately getting granular and handing out some spreadsheets. “I’ve tried to make this as painless as possible.” She wiggles her shoulders to convey how much fun this might be. “I’ve isolated a dozen projects where we are underspent. The first question is how many of these we can cut completely and how many we can defer till next year.”
    We look down the list of projects Jeanie wants to cut. Five in Ben’s group; four in Susan’s; two in Martin’s; only one in mine. Jeanie gives me a little wink. As I always do when Jeanie hands out a spreadsheet, I eyeball the numbers to look for obvious mistakes. It looks like the total in her year-to-date column is off by about two million, but I file that for later. Maybe the cuts we need won’t actually be that bad.
    “What the hell is this?” says Susan.
    Henry stands up, walks away from Susan to the far end of the conference table, then turns to face us.
    “Look,” he says. “We’re all grown-ups here. This is serious stuff. The fact is, Susan, that Jack wants our primary focus to be on generating revenue, and we just don’t see that kind of immediate return on most of what you do.”
    “What I do supports the entire business,” says Susan.
    “Don’t think we don’t respect that.”
    “You and Jack don’t even have a clue what I do, do you?”
    Henry doesn’t respond well to confrontation. Sometimes he doesn’t respond at all. In the silence, Ben pipes up: “You’ve cut the budget for Hank’s holiday party by fifty percent?” He’s looking at Jeanie.
    “I think we could be creative and find ways to economize,” she says, throwing a glance at Henry.
    “Who’s going to tell Hank?”
    “Listen,” says Henry. “We don’t have much time. Jeanie and I need to get back to corporate by Wednesday. Take this list. Use it as your starting point. If you don’t agree with the specific cuts we’ve identified, you’ll need to come up with alternative savings by end of day. I’ll review the details with Jeanie tomorrow.”
    “That’s it?” says Susan.
    “Not quite,” says Henry. “There’s one more thing we need to discuss.” He pauses to let the gravity of what he’s about to say sink in.
    “Jesus,” says Susan.
    “What is it?” says Martin.
    Henry sighs meaningfully and says, “We’ve been asked to implement another twenty-five percent reduction in force before year-end.”
    We sit quietly for a minute, translating Henry’s words and doing the math in our heads: Reduction in force means firing people. Twenty-five percent means six of our people will have to go.
    Based on the size of our respective departments, Martin and Ben will each have to cut one person, and Susan and I will need to fire two.
    “Why isn’t Hank here?” says Susan. “Do these layoffs apply to sales too?”
    Jeanie looks at Henry, making it clear that she’s not going to answer that one. Eventually, Henry